The Whitsun Weddings (Faber Modern Classics)

About the Book

The most cherished of poets, Philip Larkin is a writer with an unrivalled ability to touch readers with his evocations of English life. The Whitsun Weddings, his first volume with Faber and Faber, was published in 1964. This Faber Modern Classics edition includes a foreword by Alan Johnson MP.

'Larkin, with his (in the best sense) provincial eye, and his unparalleled ear, is the supreme writer of post-war England.' Telegraph'Larkin's originality is palpable . . . Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom? And let it be emphasised that Larkin is never 'depressing'.' Martin Amis

The most cherished of poets, Philip Larkin is a writer with an unrivalled ability to touch readers with his evocations of English life. The Whitsun Weddings, his first volume with Faber and Faber, was published in 1964. This Faber Modern Classics edition includes a foreword by Alan Johnson MP.'Larkin, with his (in the best sense) provincial eye, and his unparalleled ear, is the supreme writer of post-war England.' Telegraph'Larkin's originality is palpable . . . Who else uses an essentially conversational idiom to achieve such a variety of emotional effects? Who else takes us, and takes us so often, from sunlit levity to mellifluous gloom? And let it be emphasised that Larkin is never 'depressing'.' Martin Amis

Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry in 1922 and was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry, and St John's College, Oxford. As well as his volumes of poems, which include The Whitsun Weddings and High Windows, he wrote two novels, Jill and A Girl in Winter, and two books of collected journalism: All What Jazz: A Record Diary, and Required Writing: Miscellaneous Prose. He worked as a librarian at the University of Hull from 1955 until his death in 1985. He was the best-loved poet of his generation, and the recipient of innumerable honours, including the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, and the WHSmith Award.

“Philip Larkin's finest collection of poems. ... The Whitsun Weddings collection includes some of Larkin's greatest poems: Dockery and Son, Faith Healing, Reference Back, Love Songs in Age, An Arundel Tomb and MCMXIV among them. But the title poem is its crowning glory.”